My Kendo Notebook

Oh, the pain...

2005-07-13T08:09:00.000-04:00

I had a tiring and painful class last night. The floors at our Tuesday night class are this rubberized foam mat that would be really great for aikido of any martial art that involves falling. However, for okuri ashi, it is very, very bad. I seriously jammed my big toe on my left foot, and I think I broke the third toe on my right foot. It is a deep, rich purple and quite painful to touch/move. Not much I can do about it. If it’s still painful for Sunday’s class I’ll tape it up and hope no one stomps on it.

The tiring part was about the best part of it. I reached a level of exhaustion that I haven’t been to in a long, long time. It is somewhat liberating to be so tired that you can’t even think, you just move. I need to remember to drink more water though, since I think I lost enough sweat that I got dehydrated somewhat (a family trait of my father’s side). We started practice with a round of kata, suburi, then kiri kaeshi with everyone, followed by kihon uchi and nidan uchi practice. Then, and here is the tiring part, we did kiri kaeshi with Yamaguchi Sensei, followed by kakari geiko, followed by kiri kaeshi. A short break (we were allowed to remove the men) followed up with about 20 minutes of jigeiko. I spent all 20 minutes with Jared. He proceeded to stomp me into a little pile of indigo dye. Every time I tried his kote, he hit my men. I felt I got one good, solid men strike on him in the 20 minutes. Yamaguchi Sensei said I had four good hits, and I’m inclined to believe him, I just didn’t feel them. Of course, Jared got in about twenty times that.

Phil pointed out I’m backing up, which I had noticed already, and that “You’re 6-foot something, you should never backup”. I think this goes back to how I used to spar in karate. I was more of a defensive fighter, waiting for their attack and keeping my distance, then moving in when they are at the disadvantage (since most attacks leave you in a disadvantageous position, at least momentarily). I’m going to have to work on being more aggressive. One thing I feel I’m good at is that I’m not afraid of getting hit, but I need to work harder on striking back (i.e, to get ai-shomen) instead of blocking or backing up.

Also, I need to get a bit faster on putting my men on. Following Yamaguchi Sensei’s direction, I purchased my men with kansai style himo, and I have difficulty getting the himo back through the top of the mengane before tying it in the back. My hands are not exactly slender and delicate and I really have to force it to get a finger through the mengane to get the himo to go through. Not that it matters, I still need to get faster before summer camp. I think I’ll try putting it on every night between now and summer camp. I am noticeably faster than last Sunday, which I think is good.

All in all Yamaguchi Sensei says I’m doing better, which is good, I just need to keep getting better (and put some ice on my toe).

Ugh..

2005-07-10T18:14:00.000-04:00

I have learned a new definition for the word, tired. Today was my first day in bogu. I was honored to have Sensei be the first one to hit me (do) and I am yet again amazed at how well the bogu fits. Sensei was pretty impressed with it as well and made several comments that it's better than his. Now, I just need to get good enough to be as good as my bogu.

I now have to change everything about my kendo. The extra 20 pounds of my bogu means my movements are slower and I can't jump as far. Also, the extra weight is playing hell on my knee. I need to ride the bike more so I can get the knee built up more, and maybe start the glucosamine to see if I can build it back up. Right now, it's quite painful.

Oh, and my entire body is blue. Fun.

No News

2005-07-06T13:38:00.000-04:00

Couldn't make it to class on Tuesday, so I have nothing to report. Considering starting to train in Orlando as well (have to ask Sensei about it) and also considering another martial art. I enjoy kendo very much, but I'd like something a little more practical as well.

Lotsa Kata

2005-07-05T13:26:00.000-04:00

Had a good, albeit short, class on Sunday. We worked ashi-sabaki and kata for about an hour and a half, then had a little kendo party afterwards. I need to work more on my left foot. It keeps turning out a little bit (5-10 degrees). The same goes for my right foot when doing hidari jodan (uchidachi in ipponme). Other than that, I feel good about the 7 kata. Sanbonme foot work still needs some work (as uchidachi) but overall, happy with my knowledge of the large parts of the katas. Now I need to continue practicing and get all the small, intricate parts. Then, I can work on breathing and the mental aspects.

2005-06-29T07:07:00.000-04:00

We had a good session on Tuesday. As always, the class was very small. Jared and I were the only students. We worked through kata for the entire class. I felt really good about it. I've got the large movements of all seven long sword katas down pretty good. I actually had to go through as shidachi, which was a change for me. I knew uchidachi quite well, but my shidachi was a little rough. Sensei gave me lots of great pointers, which I need to work on.

My distance is still off, but I think it's getting better (could be that I've worked with Jared enough that we both compensate for my distance).
On ipponme, I need to remember to really avoid the uchidachi's shomen cut. Just backing up a half step isn't enough, I need to 'lift up' my body and pull my hands back slightly.
On nihonme, I did well. Sensei had no comments about it, and even had Jared make note of how I drop the boktou to avoid the kote.
On sanbonme, as shidachi, I need to work on my 'suppression' of the uchidachi's initial tuski. Mine was too much like nanahonme's dual tsuki. Also as uchidachi, I need to rotate my body more as I deflect the shidachi's return tsuki. Also, the shidachi tuski is to the throat, not sternum or shoulder (or over the shoulder which was my case). Also, when rising from gedan, go slow and keep the boktou in contact at all times.
On yohonme, I had some issues with uchidachi foot work. I kept moving back into hasso-no-kamae when I needed to move forward (uchidachi always moves forward). My distance is way off here on ai-shomen, and I need to work on the deflecting movement to get my left hand higher (to cover my entire side with the boktou).
On gohonme, I actually did pretty well. I need to do the suriage waza sooner though. I was waiting for the boktou to come too low (were it a sword, he would have killed me before I deflected the strike).
On ropponme, I did well again. I need slightly less pause in the transition from hidari jodan to chudan. Also, need a little practice again on the suriage waza. I'm doing ok, just need to hit it more often.
On nanahonme, the last step out as shidachi when doing the do cut needs to be more lateral than forward. This was throwing me off a little. However, I'm very happy that I actually got the steps right on the first try this time. I usually have to take two or three attempts before I remember the steps correctly. The boktou needs to be horizontal after the do cut (was dropping the tip) and remember to pause when dropping to wakigamae to show zanshin properly.

All in all, a good session and I really feel more comfortable with the kata. I don't get the same butterflies in the stomach now when Sensei calls out a kata name for me to do. My ankle is feeling a good bit better, but not perfect, so it was nice to have a break from too much ashi sabaki. I should be one hundred percent before Sunday.

How close were you?

2005-06-27T15:56:00.000-04:00

Decent practice on Sunday. Not as involved as I usually prefer. I feel a little better on my maai problem, but it still needs work. Most people have adapted to my distance and adjust theirs by backing up (during kiri kaeshi). Our newer student (though more experienced than I am), Sam, doesn't back up as far, which really threw my distance. I think in those cases my forward movement is going to be almost nill, since I can strike men from issoku ito no maai with about a half step in. Really felt good about my kote uchi. I worked against Travis and felt good about the strikes. Only one was off (hit the tsuba) and one or two had a really nice 'pop'. Travis said I hit the right spot each time. I think that by exaggerating my lifting of my left hand, I'm able to get into kote a little better. I need to make my upswing slightly bigger and keep my distance better, but feel good about it.

I've been trying to really watch my left foot to keep it straight. The constantly 'grinding' of my left foot from pigeon-toe to straight is causing that blister (Sensei noticed it a practice or two ago). It feels a little different (tighter in my knee really) when my foot is straight, so I need to concentrate on keeping that feeling.

Left hand is coming along well. Doing suburi with left hand only I felt really good. Sensei made a note of my breaking the wrist at the end of the strike and pointed it out to everyone (as a good thing). I've been trying to work on katate waza, so getting a good wrist snap will be important.

Can't wait to get my bogu. I really feel like I'm missing out on parts of practice. It's good to learn waza, but until you can put them into practical use, it's difficult to really learn them. It would be like learning the grammar of a new language but never learning how to put the sentence together. Bogu should be here in about 1 month (29th of July).

Pretty much all set for the Summer Camp. Saw a post in the forums from Mr. Roosevelt from Idaho that he'll be there. I look forward to meeting him. Not only does he post on our forums from time to time, but I really enjoy reading his blog. In fact, I really look forward to meeting as many people as I can.

A three-fer!

2005-06-22T13:20:00.000-04:00

Ordered my zekken (along with 3/4 the dojo) today. Yamaguchi Sensei's translation of my last name:

フォコンナァー

Very cool.

Sweet!

2005-06-22T10:15:00.000-04:00

I just confirmed my room for the All US Kendo Federation Summer Camp. I'm quite excited that I'm going (and so happy my wife understands my addition and desire to wear armor and beat up other people in armor with a stick). I might actually have bogu in time, though, I'm not sure the Summer Camp will be where I want to wear bogu for the first time. Still, lots of fun will be had I am sure. Current plans are for 4-5 kendoka from my dojo renting a big car/van and heading up the day before. Going to be an interesting trip for sure.

Habits

2005-06-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

Good practice Tuesday, though small. Worked Kata with Jared and Phil. Phil gave me some nice pointers, mostly small things, which I hope means that I've got the large movements down right. I always seem to stumble on the footwork on sanbonme when being uchidachi for some reason. When I visualize it and work the movements alone, I never stumble.

It's very interesting to watch people do jigeiko when you don't have bogu yet. Jared and Phil sparred last night and I think I learned a little something. One, be aggressive (but not sloppy). I noticed that Jared almost always backs off when in tsuba zarai. I think this puts you at a disadvantage and basically only allows for the chance of a hiki waza at best. Phil exploited this a lot against Jared. Of course, it's very easy to make comments standing on the sidelines without bogu of my own (coming soon!)

We also worked on some basic waza; men and kote uchi, kote-men, and do uchi.
Things to work on:

Posture. I lean forward when moving, which makes my poor distance control even worse.
Left foot. I allow it to turn out, which I realize then correct, and I do it over and over, which causes the blood blister on the ball of that foot.
Move with the hara. Don't just step, let the hara move me.

I 'tweaked' my ankle on the padded floors as well. Swelled up pretty good last night after practice and was painful to put any weight on. It's better today, but I don't think I'll be practicing any normal ashi sabaki tonight. I'll focus on ashi sabaki with my left foot forward for jodan, though I'll take it easy to let things heal.

The best plans..

2005-06-19T20:24:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I dumped my brain. Too much to do, not enough time in the day.

Bogu has been ordered. Lisa at eguchi is my new hero. The men and kote are totally custom made (they don't stock sizes in 'godzilla') and it isn't costing me much more than off-the-shelf. They are adding a name tag in the bogu for free, and doing some padding so I can wear my glasses. I can't wait to get it.

Need to find out why I keep getting a blister on the dead center of the ball of my left foot. I've had a large (quarter-sized) blood blister for several months. It's gotten smaller/larger over time, and once it went away, but it comes back in a class or two. Today I somehow ripped it half way off (a large chunk of flesh included). It was quite uncomfortable, so I need to find out what I'm doing to cause it (and maybe a good way of treating it).

Maai...maai...maai..and when I'm done, more maai. Sam and Phil joined our dojo officially and I had the privilege of doing kiri kaeshi with Sam and I really stomped her toe. She said it was ok, but I felt really bad. Things like that make me realize I'm a big, uncoordinated gorilla-human. Sensei wants me to keep my ability to strike from far away, but I need to do two things to make it work; always take a step back from the distance Sensei says to use (toma+step for kiri kaeshi) and mentally force myself to take small steps when I have to be close (again, kiri kaeshi)

Remember to keep my extension, even if I am too close. Distance can be fixed, my newfound habit of breaking the bend in my elbows is much harder. I need to come up with a way of doing striking practice (particularly kote and men) at home (other than dressing Robin in armor, I like sleeping in the bed).

I need to take charge more in Board of Directors. The current members tend to not be as active as I am. I wish I had more patience for this, but I want to see things get done.

Come up with a 'schedule' for the next time Sensei has me lead the beginner's class. General plan is:

Warm Up / Stretch

I've been reading and thinking that it's better to do some large movement exercise before we stretch. Need to work that into the class

Suburi

Butt-to-toe with a low grip (both hands at the bottom of the shinai)
Forward-step (step+strike, step back+reset to chudan)
Forward-backward (forward step+strike, backward step+strike)
Haya (men and maybe men+short kote+short men)

Ashi-Sabaki

Forward (slow, medium, fast)
Backward (slow, medium, fast)
360 degree

Fumi Komi

Large-step fumi komi (lunges)
Three-step fumi komi
Three fumi komi in a row

Need to update that list more with ideas (search the internet) and I need to start doing this at home. Also need to remember to switch my feet and practice both (for jodan no kamae). Need to make it so I can switch between chudan and jodan easily, and can do morote waza from jodan easily (bringing the right foot forward during fumi komi).

Ok, enough for now.

The mind boggles...

2005-04-19T13:22:00.000-04:00

I haven’t had much of a chance to post here lately. I’ve been exceedingly busy with non-Kendo stuff. I have been doing suburi at home, but not as often as I want.

On the 17th of April, I attended a seminar given by Ota Sensei and Uchida Sensei. My meager vocabulary can not express the awe I held for these Sensei. They both moved with a powerful grace that I am totally incapable of doing. We covered basics in the morning (ashi sabaki, fumi komi, men uchi, kiri kaeshi) and then kata (all seven long sword forms) in the afternoon. Uchida Sensei gave me many good pointers during our session (people with bogu trained with Ota Sensei while those without trained with Uchida Sensei).

Things I need to work on:

Maai

I always move WAY to close. Even my issoku itto no maai is much too close. This goes back mainly to me taking too large a step, especially when striking. I noticed Uchida Sensei and Ota Sensei don’t always move as far horizontally when doing fumi komi, so I need to work on that as well.

Arms

Since my maai is too short, I’ve started pulling my arms in as I swing, bending the elbows so I can strike with the monouchi correctly. Obviously, I need to take shorter steps so I don’t need to do this.

Kata

I need much more practice on kata. My ipponme and nihonme are decent, other than maai (notice a pattern yet). Sanbonme is ok, though I need to work on timing and footwork more. The others are still rough. I need to work through these by myself while visualizing my opponent. I did that with the first two and was able to remember them.

We then went to dinner with several of the attendees, including Ota Sensei and Uchida Sensei. We got to hang out with ‘Frank the German’ at lunch and dinner. What a blast. I’m amazed at the social part of Kendo. When I trained in martial arts, we would meet other practitioners, but it was never a really friendly meeting. I’ve been thinking about this since the seminar. To me, the goal of Kendo is self perfection, not necessarily winning a match. We spar, so that we can perfect our techniques against a moving target that strikes back. Karate, it seems, is more about outward perfection, where winning a match holds more value. Kendo is Kendo is Kendo. For the most part, it is fully standardized and the only variation would be in teaching techniques. Other forms of martial arts are still splintered. I think this makes the practitioners of those arts more aggressive in showing that their style is ‘better’ than other styles, i.e., by winning tournaments. It’s an interesting idea.

After a very, very long day (4:00 am to 2:30 am the next morning), I had class on Sunday with James (Shodan) teaching. It was a pretty good class. We covered basics again (as always) and kata (can never have too much). Jared and I stayed after to go through all seven of the long sword kata. I feel very bad that I could not be a better training partner for him. I know Ipponme, Nihonme and Sanbonme (mostly) and have a general understanding of the others. I’ve been reading Inoue Sensei’s book, and think I have Yohonme down pretty good. I’ll practice it tonight by myself (I visualize someone to do it against) and see if I can get the movement patterns. For kata, I need to work on:

Maai

Again, I move WAY too much.

Mental Determination

Sempai James has an amazing amount of determination on his face doing kata, and it is disconcerting. I am much bigger than James and possibly stronger, but his determination is much stronger than mine.

Physical Movements

Not maai as much as mastering the intricate movements of the kata. I have a good understanding of the ‘gross’ movements of the first three, but I need to get the fine details down better. I need to master the ‘gross’ movements of the other four so I can start finer detail.

Hopefully, it won’t be so long between my next brain dump.

Hakama and Shinai

2005-04-03T20:01:00.000-04:00

Haven't made any notes in a few days. Still trying to get the feel for documenting everything I read or learn. Class today was interesting, though not what I expected. We covered folding the hakama, which I had learned this morning from the internet (I love technology). However, I folded it in a more complex method than Yamaguchi Sensei showed. He said my way was just the 'fancy' way of doing it, but either way was correct. Of course, I noticed in class that my hakama is covered in cat hair. It was out of the bag for all of a day, and it was just covered in hair. Ahh the joys of owning a cat.

We also covered shinai maintenance, which I've got down pretty good (in practice at least). I'll probably invest in a shinai knife and a few new shinai. Yamaguchi Sensei let me try his koban style shinai and I REALLY liked it. It fit really well in my hand, and it just felt good to hold. I'll order one tonight, and a shiani knife. I need to get some cotton balls and rubber bands to oil my shinai before next weekend. Don't want it to start breaking.

C.J. and I had a really nice discussion after class about shinai and bogu styles and qualities. He had a nice selection of different style shinai that he let me hold, and he gave me some pointers and what to try. His mentality is try, within your financial capacity, as many shinai as you can, as they all provide different benefits. For bogu, he loves 3mm bogu, especially the kote. His comment to me was that do, tare, and to a lesser extent, men can be cheap, but kote you need to go expensive on and get REALLY good kote. I'll have to remember this down the road as I get closer to purchasing bogu.

We started the process of becoming a non-profit organization. I asked to be on the initial board of directors, which I think will be quite interesting. Plus, it will look good on my resume (I think). We'll need to do some work to get things ready, but I think it will be fun.

Ok, time to go order a new shinai.

Plans are subject to change...

2005-04-01T08:57:00.000-05:00

Due to events outside of my control (partially, at least) I did not get to start my new program. I will, however, start it tonight.

Holy Bogu, Fat man

2005-03-30T20:58:00.000-05:00

I had a doctor appointment today. I stood on the scale and regretted every large meal, unhealthy snack, and far too many visits to the buffet line. So, I'm going to start (attempt?) to do suburi every morning. Still trying to work out exactly what I'll do. Probably something along the lines of:

Warm-up Exercises (jumping jacks, etc) : 10 minutes
Stretching : 10 minutes
Suburi : 20 minutes

For the suburi, I'm going to divide it up between the various types we do in our dojo (wish I knew if they had specific names), some with foot movement (the one where you jump back and forth, need to look it up as well) and without. C.J. wants me to focus on my left hand more during suburi, so my goal is to do 3/4 with the left hand only. I may use my right just as guidance until my left hand gets stronger. I need to make sure that I post here every day to log my workout, use this as a way to keep me honest. I wish I had more time to squeeze out of the morning, but I just can't find it. I may try adding an evening workout as well, but I'm usually beat (mentally) when I get home from work.

Shinai measurement and styles

2005-03-30T17:00:00.000-05:00

Finally found a small answer to a larger question. Shinai are measured in shaku and sun. A "39" shinai is actually 3.9 shaku, or 3 shaku 9 sun. I also found:

Shaku = 11.930542"
Sun = 1.193054"

Found some more information on styles, but nothing to quench my thirst for knowledge. It seems that Koban style have a oval shaped tsuka (instead of a typical circle shape). Also, dobari style are fatter above the handle. My new question is can you have a koban dobari (dobari koban?) style shinai? This is quite confusing. I've found some decent information on the Kendo-World forms regarding the pros and cons of oval versus circle shaped tsuka. Seems like the only real con has been cost (oval being slightly more expensive) and inability to 'rotate' the slats (which C.J. told us not to do anyway). It might be worth while to get a koban style shinai and see how it feels. Many people commented that ten-o-uchi seemed easier with oval shaped tsuka, except it's more of a squeeze than a twisting squeeze. Very interesting.

My kingdom for a shinai

2005-03-30T10:27:00.000-05:00

So, I have my first (and currently only) shinai. It is the most inexpensive shinai carried by E-Bogu. Prior to buying the shinai, C.J. talked in class about how beginners don't know what they want or need in their equipment (shinai, bogu, etc), and that is very obvious to me. Since this is my spring break from college I was able to attend our Tuesday class, which is much smaller than our Sunday session. We spent a good hour on shinai maintenance. I was amazed at both the detail in taking apart and reassembling a shinai, and the simplicity of it. A few knots, some tension, and you're done.

C.J. had just received two shinai he had purchased, and was moving all of the pieces (tsukagawa, nakayui, sakigawa, and tsuru) from his old shinai to the new bamboo. I got a good grasp of general maintenance, however, I now (as always) have a plethora of questions that I need to answer:

Is there a general name for the accessories on the bamboo (tsukagawa, nakayui, etc)?

What is the difference in 'styles' of shinai? I've seen dobari and koban, not to mention what seems to be name brands (Aun, Akatsuki, etc.)

How does one go about ordering custom made bamboo for a shinai?

I really enjoy knowing how to take the shinai apart and put it back together. I'm not exactly the most mechanically oriented person in the world, so even something as simple as shinai maintenance makes me happy. However, C.J. noticed that the shinai I purchased (since it was inexpensive and I was new) has a tsuka that is too thin for my hand. So, I'm going to contact vendors to see what options I have. It would seem that I'd also need a tsukagawa that could handle a thicker tsuka. I don't see any size options at the sites I visited so far, but I'll keep looking. Also, C.J. doesn't like the plastic sakigomu (he has rubber ones). I wonder if it matters?

After the shinai maintenance session, we worked on the first three Kata (Ipponme, Nihonme, and Sanbonme). I'm amazed at how many minute details there are in kendo kata, from showing zanshin, to how you move the blade after a strike back into chudan no kamae. It's wonderful in it's difficulty. I have so much to learn.

In the beginning...

2005-03-30T10:13:00.000-05:00

Recently, I decided that I wanted to keep some sort of notebook or journal to document my progression through Kendo. I studied Kendo about ten years ago for around two years as part of my Karate training. However, since restarting under a different instructor, I've realized what I studied before was not Kendo, it was beating up people in armor with a shinai. We completely missed out on so many things, I can't even call it Kendo. We had, I believe, one day on footwork and one day on basic waza, and then we strapped on bogu and went at it.

Now, I train at the RenShinKan Dojo in Satellite Beach, Florida under C.J. Yamaguchi, and it is exactly what I hoped it would be. You must practice for about 3 months prior to being allowed to wear kendogi and hakama (just ordered mine!) and a full year before you are allowed to wear bogu. Of course, C.J. has some discretion on the times, if he thinks you are ready.

My first day in class, my three decades of life felt more like six or seven. I was, and still am, clumsy, flat-footed, and slow moving. However, after three months, I've become more comfortable with the waza and ashi sabaki and I feel the difference in my skills. There is, however, so much to learn. Not only waza and ashi sabaki, but the vast amount of different terms and phrases for all aspects of Kendo (courtesies, etiquette, etc). But, this is the sort of learning I really enjoy.

So, this is my journal/notebook/dumping spot/whatever you call it. I couldn't care less if anyone actually reads this, as it is for my use. If, however, you find anything I put useful, or have advice, please let me know!